Dour Doyle Alexander doesn`t care for the media spotlight. He was a no-show at a pregame press conference Tuesday.

''He`s a country boy,'' Tigers manager Sparky Anderson said. ''He doesn`t care for all the bright lights and he doesn`t care for all this glamor. To him, he`d rather go sit in his locker, sip on a beer and not bother a living soul.''

Mike Smithson, one of the Twins` top pitchers in recent years, has mixed emotions about the playoffs. Smithson slumped badly this year and was left off the Twins` playoff roster.

''This is one of the worst things that has happened to me during my baseball career,'' Smithson said. ''It`s going to be very tough to sit in the stands and watch.''

Twins manager Tom Kelly shocked the local media Wednesday by cracking several one-liners before the game. He`s usually straight-foward, showing little sense of humor.

''I got a call that there were two baskets of fruit upstairs,'' Kelly said. ''One was for Roy Smalley, and the other was for Ron Davis (the former Twins and Cubs reliever who had his problems with both teams). I said you could bring the one up for Smalley, but there`s no way you can bring the other one up here.''